TGN Focus – Learning From The Best #5 – Bill Gates

Yeah, yeah, richest guy in the world… blah, blah. Who cares? Right? I mean, he made a few smart decisions, made a few bucks here and a few bucks there, but Microsoft is often seen as a bit of a dinosaur in comparison to other companies like Apple and Google. Am I right? Not even close. Let’s overturn that perspective a little, and jump into HOW Bill Gates came to be – Let’s talk opportunity.

Just Who is He?

Bill Gates is described as anything from philanthropist to “magnate” (whatever that means), but in essence, he’s a businessman. More importantly, he’s the co-founder of Microsoft and currently flip-flops with Carlos Slim as the richest man in the world.

“He is the master of finding
and capturing opportunity”

What’s He Known For?

He is the master of finding and capturing opportunity. A brilliant guy in the first place (1590 out of 1600 on his SATs – thanks Wikipedia), Bill entered the corporate world at the time when the “personal computer” was poised to take off. The technology was building, and Bill knew it could be huge. He jumped on the opportunity by leveraging a partnership with IBM (a major player in tech and computing at the time) to build and invest in major developments of the time. The biggest and perhaps most revolutionary thing that he did was introduce DOS (Dark Operating System) as the primary engine behind PCs at the time, which he bought for chump change and used as the foundation to build an empire.

What Can We Learn From Him?

Realize opportunities to create new content, find new audiences, and connect with new creators that have similar interests. Then capitalize; use these opportunities as a means to success. We’ve already spoken about tent-pole programming, and it’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about here.

Every release, every holiday, and every esports competition could be a new opportunity to capture for your channel. It’s up to you to determine what opportunities you want to capitalize on and how you want to tackle them. Think like Bill Gates – what’s going to be the next big thing? If you’re stuck between two choices, do your research to find out which opportunity is bigger and/or more relevant to your YouTube content. Run with whatever you choose and learn from it for next time so you can grow. Remember, an opportunity that you don’t learn from is a wasted opportunity, regardless of how successful it seems.